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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 28-year-old man will be spending the next three months in jail after a rowdy March evening when he assaulted a woman, damaged her door and mailbox and spit at RCMP officers as they tried to arrest him.

"I'm sorry to the woman and her common-law. I also want to apologize to the officers I tried to spit on and missed," said Gerald Paul Stuart at his June 23 sentencing in territorial court.

Earlier in the morning, Stuart pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer. He previously pleaded guilty to assault, resisting arrest, two counts of mischief and for breaching a 2009 probation order on April 12.

Judge Garth Malakoe sentenced Stuart, who had 14 prior convictions, to a total of six months in jail minus 92 days credit for time already served in pre-trial custody since his March 23 arrest.

The Crown withdrew three additional charges before sentencing - assault, assaulting a police officer and uttering death threats.

All the charges stemmed from March 23. The Yellowknife RCMP received a complaint at 9 p.m. from a 34-year-old woman, who said Stuart assaulted her in her Hilltop Apartments residence, said Crown prosecutor Alex Godfrey. The RCMP found Stuart five minutes later near the corner of 49 Street and 51 Avenue.

Three RCMP officers tried to arrest the bald, six-foot-two-inch, 200-pound Stuart, but the officers were only able to handcuff his right hand.

He was knocked to the ground, where he continued to resist arrest.

In an attempt to free his hands, the officers kneed Stuart in the body twice and in the head four times.

He was finally handcuffed, but as he was being led to a squad car, he spit at, but missed, the officers.

As a result, the officers threw him on the hood of the car and placed a "spit hood" over his head before taking him to the Yellowknife detachment.

A couple of hours later, the complainant told the RCMP she had just met Stuart through friends and invited him into her residence earlier in the evening. They drank together for about 30 minutes until Stuart started calling her names and swearing at her. She asked him to leave, at which point, he grabbed her by the collar and threw her into a door, striking her in the mouth in the process. She didn't suffer any physical injuries as a result of the assault, said Godfrey. Stuart left the residence, but on the way, he damaged the woman's front door and mailbox.

Godfrey then read a victim impact statement from the complainant, in which she states she just left an abusive relationship and how the assault from Stuart was unprovoked.

Stuart's lawyer, Jay Bran, said his client's overconsumption of alcohol led to the offences. Bran added his client, who was "bleeding profusely" from the blows to the head from the police, was the only person

physically injured that night.

Besides the jail term, Malakoe ordered Stuart to pay $325 in restitution and also fined him a total of $600 for the two counts of property damage.

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